Tory Higgins, Ph.D.
Stanley Schachter Professor of Psychology
Professor Higgins works at the intersection of motivation and cognition and is most recently interested by the general question, “Where does value come from?”, and the more specific question, “What makes a decision good?” Higgins received the Donald T. Campbell Award in Social Psychology in 1996, and the Thomas M. Ostrom Award in Social Cognition in 1999. In 2000, he was the recipient of both the William James Fellow Award from the American Psychological Society and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association Award. He has been an editorial consultant to several professional journals, and he has served as an advisor and consultant to many governmental and academic organizations. In 2000, he was chosen to present Columbia’s University Lecture. In 2004, he was the recipient of the Presidential Teaching Award.
Affiliated Faculty
Svetlana Komissarouk, Ph.D.
Term. Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Barnard College, Columbia
Svetlana Komissarouk conducts research in three fields of social psychology – culture, motivation and prosocial behavior. In the cultural social psychological domain, she is interested in how an individual’s type of attachment to their home country can impact their ability to take risks and to form new trust bonds with strangers. In motivational social psychology, her research applies Regulatory Mode Theory to basic social psychological questions of collaboration and creativity, such as: How does self-regulation influence the life-changing decisions people make and the ways they interact and affiliate with others? What kind of help do people prefer to give and receive according to their dominant motivational systems? Svetlana Komissarouk is also known as a popularizer of psychological science. She appears in media and gives lectures to the general public all over the world.
- Fall 2015: PSYC UN2630. Social Psychology
- Spring 2015 – Fall 2024: PSYC GU4645. Culture, Motivation and Prosocial Behavior
- Fall 2019 – Spring 2021, Fall 2024: PSYC BC1020. Behavioral Research Methods and Analysis
- Fall 2018 – Spring 2025: PSYC GU4630. Advanced Seminar in Current Personality Theory and Research
- Fall 2022: PSYC BC2125. Theory of Personality
- Spring 2023 – Fall 2023: PSYC BC1001. Introduction to Psychology
- Fall 2024 – Spring 2025: PSYC BC1010. Introductory Laboratory in Experimental Psychology
- Spring 2025: PSYC BC3407. Psychology of Help
Postdoctoral Scholars
Federica Pinelli, Ph.D.
Federica’s research investigates the conditions under which humans are motivated to share their understanding of the world and share their reality with others. Furthermore, her work aims at investigating how both successful as well as ineffective examples of social sharing affect people’s understanding of the world around them and their motivations, their intentions and attitudes. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program Federica spent 10 years working in fixed income, currencies and commodities for a major US Investment Bank covering a variety of roles, most recently as a Chief of Staff of one its Subdivisions. Federica holds a Law degree from Università Cattolica in Milan (Italy), an MSc in Economics from London University (UK) and an MBA from Columbia University.
Graduate Students
Emily Nakkawita
6th Year Ph.D. Student
Emily is interested in understanding the factors that lead to effective goal pursuit processes, with effectiveness defined in terms of both achievement and well-being. As a PhD student, she studies the motivational underpinnings of different kinds of goal pursuit activities. In particular, she examines how the goal pursuit process is affected by individual differences in the strength of fundamental motives for truth and control, combined with a focus on gains and non-gains (promotion value) versus non-losses and losses (prevention value). Prior to her graduate studies, Emily examined what motivates people through a career in brand marketing and advertising.
Emma Miller
3rd Year Ph.D. Student
Emma’s research examines language as a mechanism of shared reality creation and maintenance. She is interested in understanding how we co-construct meaning in conversation and mentally represent dyad-specific concepts. At present, she is investigating these processes in the context of close relationship microcultures. Prior to her graduate studies, Emma received her BA in History from Brown University.
Alumni
Kirstin Appelt: Center for Decision Sciences (CDS), Columbia Business School
Poonam Arora: Manhattan College & CRED, Columbia University
Billur Avlar: Columbia University
Allison Bajger: Blueliner, LLC
Vanessa Bohns: Cornell University
Miguel Brendl: University of Basel
Jeff Brodscholl: BioVid Corp
Justin Cavallo: Wilfrid Laurier University
Joe Cesario: Michigan State University
Lorraine Chen Idson
Mark Conley: Stockholm School of Economics
James Cornwell: U.S. Military Academy at West Point
Ellen Crowe: KTNS
Baruch Eitam: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jens Förster
Becca Franks: University of British Columbia
Ilona Fridman: Fuqua, Duke University
Ron Friedman: ignite80
Heidi Grant: NeuroLeadership Institute, Columbia University Motivation Science Center
Curtis Hardin: Brooklyn College
Adena Klem
Nira Liberman: Tel Aviv University
Mirei Matsuoka-Umeda: Aichi Gakuin University
Kerry Milch: CRED, Columbia University
Daniel Molden: Northwestern University
Jason Plaks: University of Toronto
Marta Roczniewska: Karolinska Institutet
Chris Roney: King’s University College at Western University Canada
Maya Rossignac-Milon: IESE Business School
Diane Safer: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Abigail Scholer: University of Waterloo
James Shah: Duke University
Scott Spiegel: The College Board
Amy Taylor-Bianco: Ohio University
Christine Webb: Utrecht University
Xi (Canny) Zou: Nanyang Technological University
Katherine Zee: Netflix
Collaborators
Gerald Echterhoff: Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster
Arie Kruglanski: University of Maryland
Frank Mathmann: Queensland University of Technology
Antonio Pierro: Sapienza University of Rome
